Thesprotia

Among the districts of ancient Epirus, Thesprotia is the most suitable for studying the religious life of the Epirotes at the scale of the ethnos. Indeed, Thesprotia seems to feature a peculiar identity both in the field of the cults and in that of the formal layout of the sacred spaces. This paper proposes a reassessment of our knowledge of Thesprotian cultic antiquities comparing different kind of sources, from the literary and numismatic ones to the archaeological evidence, also unpublished, relating both votive offerings and the architectural features of the sanctuaries. The topic of the development of a mythical complex concerning the underworld in the lower part of the region, adopted by the Thesprotians as a symbol of their religious identity, will be particularly
investigated. Can we regard the oracle of the dead at the Acheron river as a federal sanctuary of the Thesprotian tribes? Does the literary tradition related to the underworld correspond to a real cultic landscape detectable through the archaeological record? Although it is difficult to answer these questions due to the ambiguous nature of our sources, some hypotheses will be proposed on the basis of the available data.

Συμμετοχή στις εργασίες του Γ΄ Συνεδρίου για "Το Αρχαιολογικό Έργο στη Βορειοδυτική Ελλάδα και τα νησιά του Ιονίου"

Περίληψη:
Η Σικυώνα παρουσιάζει αξιόλογη νομισματική κυκλοφορία στη Βορειοδυτική Ελλάδα και τα νησιά του Ιονίου, όπως προκύπτει από τις αργυρές και χάλκινες κοπές που εντοπίζονται κυρίως σε τάφους, οικισμούς, ιερά και «θησαυρούς». Εξαιρετικά ενδιαφέρον κρίνεται, επίσης, το γεγονός ότι ορισμένες ταφές συνοδεύονται από δανάκες - ψευδονομίσματα που φέρουν στην έκτυπη επιφάνειά τους περιστέρι εν πτήσει, το κύριο έμβλημα των σικυώνιων κοπών. Η παρούσα μελέτη σκοπό έχει να ιχνηλατήσει την κυκλοφορία των νομισμάτων της Σικυώνας σε αυτό το γεωγραφικό χώρο. Για τη βέλτιστη ερμηνευτική προσέγγιση των δεδομένων που θα προκύψουν, θα επιχειρηθεί η αντιπαραβολή τους με την αντίστοιχη κυκλοφορία νομισμάτων της όμορης Κορίνθου, η οποία στις ίδιες περιοχές είχε αναπτύξει έντονη αποικιακή και εμπορική δράση.

Abstract
Sicyon presents remarkable monetary circulation in Northwestern Greece and the Ionian Islands, as evidenced by the silver and bronze issues that are found mainly in graves and hoards. Furthermore, the fact that certain burials are accompanied by ghost money - pseudocoins bearing on their printed surface a dove in flight, the main emblem of the sicyonian issues, is extremely interesting. The present study aims to trace the circulation of coinages from Sicyon in this geographical area. For the optimal interpretive approach of the resulting data, will be attempted a compare with the corresponding monetary circulation of neighboring Corinth, which in the same areas had developed intense colonial and commercial activity.

The subject of the present MA Thesis is the fortifications of four Late Classical/Hellenistic poleis in Thesprotia/Epirus. Specifically, the poleis are:
• Gitana, the seat of the Koinon of the Thesprotoi
• Elea, the main city of the tribe of Eleates
• Dymokastro, probably ancient Elina
• and Ntoliani, which is identified with ancient Fanoti.
The fortification of the cities of Thesprotia took place in the same or sometime after their foundation in the middle and in the second half of the 4th century BC. During the first half of the 3rd century BC, when Epirus was among the most powerful Hellenistic kingdoms, the enceintes of the previous period were either extended (Ntoliani, Dymokastro, Elea), either repaired (Elea) or they were modernized (Gitana/U-shaped Tower 10). The Diateichisma of Gitana was constructed, during the second half of the 3rd century BC, as a result of the military weakness of the Epirote League. The development of the urban fortifications of the Hellenistic Thesprotia ends in 167 BC when the Romans conquered Epirus.

Little is known on the Byzantine history and the monumental topography of Byzantine Thesprotia, since there is not enough information on the ancient sources and several Byzantine monuments have not been fully studied. Recent archaeological research has brought to light many architectural remains and other elements, which are extremely important to the study of the Byzantine
history of the area. The three churches we are presenting in the following text, will greatly contribute not only to the advancement of research on ecclesiastical architecture, but will also help us understand the elements
that constitute the general urban plan organization of Thesprotia during the Byzantine period. The three Byzantine churches that are the subject of our study are the ruined churches of Panaghia Lambovithra and Aghia Photini in Photiki, as well as the church of Metamorphosis near the village of Plakoti in Thesprotia.

The ancient city of Gitana in Thesprotia is located on the north bank of Thyamis river, near its junction with the Kalpakiotikos tributary. This fortified settlement was built at an advantageous spot, having access both to the fertile lands of Cestrine and to the sea through Thyamis (mod. Kalamas). Virtually unknown besides one passage by Polybios and another one by Titus Livius, Gitana came into the spotlight of research after 1986 when the first excavation was conducted on the site. Excavations became systematic and are still continued in the present-day, revealing major architectural remains and yielding highly important finds.
Archaeological data pointed out early on that this was not just an urban settlement, but from the late 4th century BC it emerged gradually as the capital city of the ethnos of the Thesprotians and later as a major centre of the Koinon of the Epirotes. As a case study the site in question turns out to be particularly interesting, in order to evaluate political and economic organization in a region rather neglected by research, as well as to get a closer look to the development of the ethnos-states, especially towards the formation of a larger confederacy engulfing most of north-western Greece.
In tracing commercial relations with other territories evidence obtained from stamped amphora handles is very useful: the most remarkable examples so far come from Rhodos and Italy (mainly from Apulia). Coin circulation is of course a crucial factor in gathering information both for everyday transactions in this area that were made with the use of local coinages and for the documentation of the presense of foreign coins that gives a characteristic mosaic of monetary contacts. The several issuing authorities (Epirote Koinon, Ambracia, Corcyra, Macedonian kings, Illyria, Cassope, Corinth, Acarnania, Aetolia, Leucas, Rome, Ptolemies, etc) can be viewed in perspective according to the number of the found coins and the dating of the issues employed, alongside with other intriguing remarks. The discovery of approximately 3,000 clay sealings in the ‘Building A’ (probably the Prytaneion) of Gitana gives a rare chance to study an extremely valuable public archive, since the seal impressions had been used on papyri documents that were incinerated during the destruction of the city by the Romans in 167 BC. The significance of this material can be fully appreciated in due time; the pieces of information already extracted change radically the picture regarding the city’s institutions, its economy and administration, the contacts with other communities and polities, the prosopography of the broader area and other aspects of a society barely familiar to us until now.

Petros Georgiadis was one of the most productive icon painters in the middle of the 19th c. He came from Ioannina, Epirus and had the advantage of being in close relation to the local Metropolis, being the Cantor there. He created dozens of icons always signing in a meticulously characteristic way. Nevertheless, only a couple of his signed murals have been preserved, in the city of Ioannina and on the Island of its lake. So, although his icons can be found in many villages of Epirus, as well as in Thessaly, Albania and Bulgaria, we can assume that he was not actually visiting these places. He was rather receiving orders and was painting in his workshop in Ioannina. In this way, the icons from the church of the Virgin in Paramythia were probably ordered because a new iconostasis was erected. Georgiadis painted from April till June 1853 eight large icons for the iconostasis and an icon stand. Each icon was paid for by a different donor although they were probably ordered all together. We should mention the icon of saint Donatus that seems to be Georgiadis’ innovative creation. Apart from these, he also painted two small icons of individual saints in 1854 and 1859 respectively.

G. Riginos, K. Lazari, V. Lamprou, A. Tzortzatou 2018. “New archaeological data from the main late Classical-Hellenistic fortified settlements of Thesprotia after the enhancement works of the last decade”, in VIeme Colloque International L’ Illyrie Méridionale et l’Epire dans l’Antiquité, Tirana, 20-23 May 2015, Paris: De Boccard, 753-763

Abstract
During the last decade the large fortified settlements of late-Classical and Hellenistic Thesprotia, namely Gitana, Elea, Doliani and Dymokastro, were included in an extensive enhancement and valorization program, resulting in an abundance of new archaeological evidence on their organization and history, which offers a renewed view on the history of the entire region in the same period.
The new archaeological data in Gitana concern primarily the urban planning and lifespan of the settlement as well as the spatial organization of its cemeteries. In Elea the research focused on the spatial organization of the agora area and of some of the settlement’s central districts, while a lot of information occurred about the occupations of the residents and the general character of the city. In Doliani came to light the complex defensive system of the settlement along with a large number of building remains and other archaeological findings certifying the exceptional longevity and durability of habitation. And finally in Dymokastro remarkable shrine complexes were revealed, as well as numerous other archeological findings which attest to the contacts of commercial character developed between this coastal settlement and the rest of the Hellenistic world.

Gitana, the main city of the Thesprotoi, a significant political center of the Epirotes too, occupied a spacious plateau, at the foot of mount Vryssela, in the northern riverbank of Kalamas, not very far from its conjunction with the river Kalpakiotikos. However having significant potentials in controlling commercial and military traffic, the site of the city constitutes a weak defensive position, mainly because of the hill that dominates the occupied area. The aim of this paper is to present in brief the main structural, strategical and tactical features of the successive defensive works that were erected to protect Gitana during the Late Classical/Hellenistic period (The External Enceinte, The Western Fortification Wall and the Diateichisma) and also to propose a well documented chronological sequence as well as a reasonable working hypothesis on their historical context.

The ruins of a remarkable work of Greek fortification within the region of Thesprotia are preserved on the peninsula of Lygia, at the entrance of the bay of modern Igoumenitsa
The fortifications of Lygia became known among archaeologists and historians only in 1953 thanks to K. A. Papageorgiou, who alleged that during the antiquity the peninsula was one of the islands mentioned as "Sybota" by Thucydides and Strabo. A few years later, both N. G. L. Hammond and S. Dakaris argued that the area of the Kalamas delta was part of the Corcyrean Peraia and they identified the fortifications of Lygia as one of the τείχη ... ἐν τῇ ἠπείρῳ, where the oligarchs of the island found refuge in 427 B.C. Furthermore Dakaris made use of a quite precise topographic plan to distinguish three successive enceintes in the site, which he correlated with the testimony of Thucydides. He dated Lygia A and B in the 5th c., prior 427 B.C., and Lygia C in the period 427-343 B.C. Even though this theory was revised by Dakaris himself in 1986, it still remains widely accepted.
In this paper the main architectural elements (masonry styles, types of towers, devices of enfilading) of the Lygia fortifications are being reexamined:
• Three distinctive building phases are being identified, none of which can be dated before the early 4th c. B.C.
• The earliest building phase is associated with a 3~3,5 m thick double faced fortification wall of pseudo-isodomic trapezoidal masonry reinforced exclusively with semicircular towers, some of which are almost 10 m in diameter.
• A fortification wall of rubble masonry, which Dakaris recognized as part of Lygia B, is reinforced with one orthogonal tower, while four to five jogs placed at regular intervals form an indented trace of the systematic type.
• Finally a ±90 m long diateichisma with at least one rectangular tower formed a shortened enceinte (Dakaris's Lygia A), which enclosed a densely occupied area of approximately 1,2 hectares on the eastern edge of the former island.

A Hellenistic building near a village of Sevasto in Thesprotia was studied. The site provided a well-preserved architecture and a diverse set of finds. The building was dated and set in the historical context. Moreover, an architectural study combined with a spatial analysis was attempted.

Nearly 800 prehistoric pottery sherds were examined from excavations at the hilltop site of Mursi, near Butrint, Albania, in 2010. The ceramics, excavated from stratified deposits in Unit 1 (Area 1), include cooking, coarse, semi- fine, and fine wares dating between the 13th and 11th century BC. Combined research strategies of stratigraphic excavation, soil analysis, and examination of pottery, lithics and other finds, in conjunction with AMS radiocarbon (C-14) and thermoluminescence (TL) dating, confirm that the site’s prehistoric occupation phases date to the Late Bronze Age (LBA: c. 1450–1070 BC), with some possible continued occupation into the beginning of the Early Iron Age (EIA: c. 1070–800 BC).  This study reviews the deposition and preservation of Mursi’s LBA ceramics and presents a typology of five ceramic wares from the site, based on macroscopic fabric characteristics (inclusions, colour, firing, surface treatment) and formal qualities (vessel shape, function, decoration).

The LBA assemblages from Mursi are compared with ceramics from Cape Stillo and Kalivo, two nearby prehistoric sites within the Pavllas River Valley. Ongoing analysis of ceramics from Mursi, Cape Stillo and Kalivo employing inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) is offering opportunities to identify more precisely where these wares were being produced in comparison to where they were recovered. Mursi’s C-14 dated LBA ceramics help to confirm the prehistoric dates of the Pavllas River Valley assemblages collected from Cape Stillo and Kalivo, which taken together represent a valuable regional set for examining the co- development of LBA and EIA ceramic ware categories in southwestern Albania. Their ongoing analysis using ICP-MS can offer a regional picture of site interactions and ceramic use through time.

Preliminary results suggest that specific wares and forms were produced and distributed via domestic modes of production, accommodating different preferences by site. Ultimately, it is hoped that the C-14-dated ceramic deposits from Mursi can help to establish the Pavllas River Valley typology as another body of material that can assist in piecing together decades of survey and rescue excavation results from prehistoric Epirote sites in order to understand, without reference to modern political borders, how sites on the edges of Mycenaean and Illyrian worlds interacted.

The site of the Gouriza field is located in the Kokytos river valley, Thesprotia. The site which survived basicly without any architectural remains was detected in an actively cultivated field during a field walk. Various studies implemented included intensive survey, magnetometric study, auger coring and test excavation. The results shed light on the settlement pattern and the rural architecture in the valley during Late Classical, Early Hellenistic periods. Challenges involved in interpreting the magnometric data and the destruction inflicted on rural sites by modern agriculture are further discussed.

Pyrgos Ragiou Site, Thesprotia: The Bronze Age Chipped Stone Industry
Ourania Palli
The present study concerns the chipped stone assemblage from Pyrgos Ragiou. The archaeological site of Pyrgos
Ragiou is 10 km northwest of the city of Igoumenitsa. It occupies the top of a low hill in the middle of the Ragio-Kestrini
plain, near the old estuary of the Kalamas river. The site is well known for the small fortress of the 5th c. BC and owes
its modern name to a tower of the Ottoman period.
The excavation data, however, proves that the advantageous ‒ in terms of natural beauty and fortification ‒ site attracted
the human interest from the prehistoric period.
The geomorphology of the area was completely different during this period. The anthropogenic interventions from
1958 onwards, with intensive irrigation programs, diversion of the delta estuary and the creation of a dam, led to the
filling of the formerly waterbed.
The excavations carried out in the 80s and 90s brought partially to light the older layers of habitation and a wide
range of findings, including among them pottery and 371 flint artefacts. Local flints are the dominant raw materials.
The chipped stone industry is oriented to the production of flakes from simple or multi-directional nuclei. Secondary
retouched tool types include scrapers, notches, denticulates, piercers, points and composite tools. The parallel presence
of bifacial leaf-shaped and triangular points and arrowheads with concave base and tangs indicates a chronological
horizon from the Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age to the Late Bronze Age. However, the lack of clear stratification and
study of the other categories of finds does not allow a better dating. At a local level, the greater typological variety and
the more elaborated secondary retouch of Pyrgos’s chipped stone assemblage, differentiate it from the recently excavated
Bronze Age site of Goutsoura in terms of settlement type and the activities that took place in it.

"A rescue excavation at the visitor’s building area of the archaeological site of Gitana, Thesprotia"

The paper will give an overall a presentation of the unpublished material from the rescue excavation conducted in the years 2004-2005 at the entrance of the archaeological site of Gitana, in the area where the visitor’s building has been constructed.
A densely-built part of the Hellenistic settlement’s cemetery was excavated, with a great variety regarding burial constructions and funeral practices, as well as architectural vestiges which seem to belong to some sort of workshop establishment. Of special interest is the group of medical tools and implements found in one of the graves, while the same area yielded a group of handmade pottery, the dating of which is also discussed in this paper.

Gitana, an ancient city in Epirus barely known from literary evidence, emerged as a major area of archaeological research rather recently via the excavations conducted there. The importance of the city as capital of the Thesprotians and as principal center for the Epirotan affairs is gradually demonstrated through impressive finds that have come to light.
Through the study of the coins excavated during years 1986-1997, a good sample has been assembled for the assessment of the coin circulation at Gitana. Alongside with an overview of the diffusion of coinage in the broader area valuable remarks can be drawn. The rarity of the Peloponnesian coins is examined in comparison to the predominant emissions circulating in Epirus, issuing authorities are highlighted and other bits of information are discussed, tracing virtually unknown contacts between the two regions.
Within the aforementioned context, from the particularly significant group of approximately 3,000 clay sealings from the correspondence archive found at Gitana, comes a highly interesting inscribed seal impression issued by the city of Dyme. In combination with the most probable terminus ante quem, an attempt is made to date the iconographic type by seeking comparanda in the coin production of the city in question and beyond.

Kastro Veliani occupies a plateau overlooking the Kokytos River valley. It is identified with Elea, a polis attested on a 4th century B.C. inscription from Dodona. The site itself possesses a significant number of polis features: a grid planned built up space, an agora and other public buildings, a temple and private houses.
It was fortified probably during the second half of the 4th century B.C. The layout of its fortifications was determined by the form of the plateau and its relation to the High Ground as well as by a natural route that passed by necessity through the town.
The rugged northern, eastern and southern edges of the plateau were mostly fortified by short stretches of wall, while towards the east a massive, stone fortification more than 10 m. in height was erected to face the steep slopes of the Gorilas Mountain range. This Eastern Fortification comprises two jogs, two salients, a tower and two openings; one major gate and one postern, presumably a sally port. It consists of two double faced walls of different thickness one on top of the other, built of different styles of polygonal masonry. Between the tower and the major gate of the wall as well as next to the postern enormous orthostats were placed.
In this paper a proposal is presented on the functions -military, symbolic and urbanistic- of the city walls that defended Elea until the city’s destruction around the middle of the 2nd c. B.C.

La profecía de Tiresias anuncia el viaje de Odiseo hacia el interior del continente con la finalidad de congraciarse con Poseidón. Este hecho ocurre en el lugar donde el héroe astuto encuentra un pueblo que ignora el mar. Tucídides y Heródoto describen los pueblos de Etolia, Epiro y Tesprotia como diferentes al resto de la Hélade, puesto que hablan una lengua semibárbara y tienen poco o nulo conocimiento de navegación, coincidiendo así con las características predichas por el adivino tebano. Asimismo, otros testimonios escritos relatan tradiciones locales sobre la presencia de Ulises por estas tierras, la que permite a etolios, epirotas y tesprotos ser incluidos entre las poblaciones citadas en el Ciclo Épico Troyano, insertándose de esta forma en la memoria colectiva de los griegos y retrotrayendo sus orígenes al pasado mítico homérico.

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) quality and authenticity are important and challenging factors nowadays for the assurance of consumers' protection, prevention of unfair competition, and disruption of the national economy by a false declaration of origin. Hence, the recognition of EVOO authenticity is of great interest in terms of commercial and quality aspects. The objective of this study was to evaluate and discriminate monovarietal extra virgin olive oils of the two dominant olive cultivars, Lianolia Kerkyras and Koroneiki, produced in the coastline part of Western Greece, based on their chemical characteristics, followed by statistical and chemometric analysis in order to profile for the first time the typical characteristics of Lianolia Kerkyras as well as to identify possible markers for authenticity purpose. A total of 104 olive oil samples were collected. Both cultivars had an overall high quality profile as far as their basic qualitative parameters (free fatty acid, peroxi...

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) quality and authenticity are important and challenging factors nowadays for the assurance of consumers’ protection, prevention of unfair competition, and disruption of the national economy by a false declaration of origin. Hence, the recognition of EVOO authenticity is of great interest in terms of commercial and quality aspects. The objective of this study was to evaluate and discriminate monovarietal extra virgin olive oils of the two dominant olive cultivars, Lianolia Kerkyras and Koroneiki, produced in the coastline part of Western Greece, based on their chemical characteristics, followed by statistical and chemometric analysis in order to profile for the first time the typical characteristics of Lianolia Kerkyras as well as to identify possible markers for authenticity purpose. A total of 104 olive oil samples were collected. Both cultivars had an overall high quality profile as far as their basic qualitative parameters (free fatty acid, peroxide v...

Extensive archaeological work in various sites, undertaken by the Ephorate for Prehistoric & Classical Antiquities of Thesprotia since 2003, in addition to the Thesprotia Expedition interdisciplinary project conducted under the auspices of the Finnish Institute at Athens in the Kokytos river basin, provided us with new evidence for the Early Iron Age and the Archaic period in the region.
The paper offers an overview and synthesis of the archaeological data concerning the period between the ninth and fifth centuries BC which, until recently, was considered something of a “dark” interval in the history of Thesprotia. A cross-examination of the newest results from the sites of Mavromandilia, Doliani, Neochori, Sternari, Chotkova, Agios Donatos, Aetos, Elea, Dymokastro, with finds from earlier excavations (Pyrgos Ragiou, Grika, Mastilitsa, Karteri, Kyra Panagia) point to a spatially expanded habitation preceding the foundation of the large fortified settlements of the late Classical-early Hellenistic period. At the same time it reveals patterns of exploiting the natural sources, communication routes and external contacts during the period in question.

Research excavation and the ongoing restoration works on the archaeological site of Dymokastron during the last years have brought to light a considerable amount of hellenistic pottery.
Apart from the plain, undecorated houseware, collected in large quantities, it is interesting the high percentage of pottery (mainly skyphoi) with relief decoration, in comparison to that found in other important contemporary sites of Thesprotia, namely Gitana nd Elea.
Decoration, either covering the whole surface of the vase or limited within specific zones, comprises geometric and floral motifs, themes deriving from the marine world, as well as human figures, often within composite mythological scenes.
Within the scope of the present paper, a first approach to the relief pottery will be attempted, including classification and identification of the different centers of production, from which it will be illustrated the role of this coastal settlement as an important trading post between mainland Greece and Southern Italy/Sicily. The “maritime” orientation of the settlement must have been the main reason for the well documented continuity of activity in the settlement long after the Roman conquest of 167 BC.

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) quality and authenticity are important and challenging factors nowadays for the assurance of consumers’ protection, prevention of unfair competition, and disruption of the national economy by a false declaration of origin. Hence, the recognition of EVOO authenticity is of great interest in terms of commercial and quality aspects. The objective of this study was to evaluate and discriminate monovarietal extra virgin olive oils of the two dominant olive cultivars, Lianolia Kerkyras and Koroneiki, produced in the coastline part of Western Greece, based on their chemical characteristics, followed by statistical and chemometric analysis in order to profile for the first time the typical characteristics of Lianolia Kerkyras as well as to identify possible markers for authenticity purpose. A total of 104 olive oil samples were collected. Both cultivars had an overall high quality profile as far as their basic qualitative parameters (free fatty acid, peroxide v...

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) quality and authenticity are important and challenging factors nowadays for the assurance of consumers’ protection, prevention of unfair competition, and disruption of the national economy by a false declaration of origin. Hence, the recognition of EVOO authenticity is of great interest in terms of commercial and quality aspects. The objective of this study was to evaluate and discriminate monovarietal extra virgin olive oils of the two dominant olive cultivars, Lianolia Kerkyras and Koroneiki, produced in the coastline part of Western Greece, based on their chemical characteristics, followed by statistical and chemometric analysis in order to profile for the first time the typical characteristics of Lianolia Kerkyras as well as to identify possible markers for authenticity purpose. A total of 104 olive oil samples were collected. Both cultivars had an overall high quality profile as far as their basic qualitative parameters (free fatty acid, peroxide v...